Let’s Focus
in Articles
What kind of vision do you have? I am not talking about what you can see as possibilities in the future but what you can see with clarity right in front of you. I got my first pair of glasses at age 11 and I can remember being totally amazed at being able to identify leaves on the trees, see people’s faces from a distance and read the number of a bus coming down the road. Somehow you get used to not seeing clearly and think everyone views the world in the same way. Without focus, our lives and ministry become blurry and disoriented.
Don Marquis (author) writes, “ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it!”
What do our lives feel like without focus?
Scattered: there never seems to be enough time to follow through on anything properly, or there’s too much time and we never seem to get around to it. We never debrief what we have just done and so never learn the important lessons.
Dabbling: we start wearing too many hats – a bit of this, a bit of that, a role here, a role there. We can show our busy schedules but we are not really producing anything.
Fast Lane: We are here one week and in another country the next. We go from meeting to meeting and there is no time for relationship. Life is a blur.
Distracted: We get caught up with things that take our interest and the day goes by and we haven’t done anything we set out to do. Life becomes a set of tangents. We never seem to get to the real priorities. It would help if we knew what they were.
It’s time to focus. Peter and the disciples had been following Jesus for nearly 3 years. Their lives had been changed. Then one day everything was turned upside down when Jesus was crucified. Even though Jesus said he would rise from the dead, they hadn’t take it in. Then just when they were about to give up he appears to them but only for a short time. They are confused and head back to Galilee from Jerusalem.
In John 21, Jesus was up early cooking breakfast on the beach for the disciples. He wanted to help Peter to focus once more. He asked Peter, “Do you love me?” Peter answered that he did. Three times Jesus asked. Peter began to focus on the priority. He focused on waiting on God for the promise. Just a short time later he preached and 3000 came to the Lord. He had focus – building the church, travelling and drawing others into the new revelation and message of the Kingdom.
Life is all about priorities. We have many choices and the choices we make affect our destiny. Things we focus on today will affect our tomorrows. So what one thing are we focusing on today?
God gives us a great commandment and a great commission. What do we focus on? Often we see it as a choice, one or the other. Or we see it as a gifting issue – some are to focus more on relationships, some more on the mission. Actually we are to fulfil them both. But what comes first?
Worship leads to service. Our love for God and others overflows in action and ministry. The great commandment leads us into the great commission. So what is the “one thing” I am to focus on in order to obey the great commandment?
In Mk 10:21 Jesus says to the rich young ruler, “one thing is needed – sell all your goods and give them to the poor and come with me.” Is the “one thing“ for you, to make a fresh personal commitment to God? We are called to life of faith and so we need to trust him for everything. What step of faith do I need to take in order to focus on what God has for me?
God put his finger on an issue in the lives of the Corinthians. “One thing I am not pleased about – when you come together it’s not for better but worse.” 1 Corinthians 11:17. When was the last time God confronted you on an issue? Is there one thing you need to stop doing?
When Jesus came to the house of Mary and Martha, he said, “One thing is needed – Mary has taken that good part” Luke 10:42 Perhaps the one thing you need to do is sit and listen and receive, rather than do, do , do. What one thing do you need to do in order to develop your devotional life?
Paul shares, “One thing I do, letting go what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal.” Having abandoned everything for Jesus, then you can discover what it is Jesus has for you in the future.
God is looking for people who are ready to live holy lives and committed to Jesus with their whole hearts. When we make our “one thing” to focus on Jesus, he shows us the “one thing” to please him. The thing he has taken a hold of us to fulfil.
St Aidan was an example of a man who was focused in ministry. He was born in Ireland and appointed bishop early in his life but he resigned to become a monk at the monastery Columba founded on the island of Iona. The monastery had an invitation from Oswald in 633 to send monks down to Northumbria for a mission to evangelise the area. The first Monk met with little success because he saw the people as “ungovernable and of an obstinate and barbarous temperament!” However Aidan on hearing the report encouraged a gentler approach and everyone was convinced that he was the one to go. So Aidan arrived with 12 monks and chose to settle on the island of Lindisfarne. Over the following years he became an apostle of Northumbria and through his disciples an apostle to England.
The statute of Aidan in Lindisfarne, shows Aidan with his face looking out to the future, to the un-evangelised region of England with faith filled vision. He was focused on the goal ahead. He has a staff in his hand, symbolising his care for people, with which he travelled and shared the salvation message and related with everyone from a heart of love. Through his journeys he established missionary centres throughout the region. The statue 
also has him holding a torch in his hand. He was focused on training up other younger monks in order to continue his efforts after he would die. He knew there needed to be an English leadership for the English church. The missionaries trained in his school went out and worked for the conversion of much of Anglo-Saxon England, Cuthbert being one of them.
Through his focus of vision he was able to see the Kingdom of God come to England. God desires us to have a clear focus too. In Western Europe we have had a project called “Double vision.” The vision simply encourages us to focus on what we are doing and double it. It’s not a big goal, but one that is easily obtainable. Whatever team you are working on, plant another team over the next few years somewhere else. Whatever we start, include the DNA of multiplication.
Focus! Focus! Focus! Focus on how are you growing personally and focus on what you are growing in ministry. One thing is needed!
Stephe Mayers
